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This is a movie made and released for free under the creative commons license. Made with free software [Blender] by regular (very talented) people.
It's about 60% of the way there in comparison to a Pixar movie. No words, slightly simplified graphics, slightly amateurish acting. But I'm splitting hairs, it's great.
Here is the project Blog: http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/
Ties right in with Clay Shirky's Cognitive Surplus speech: [linky]
In this world of trivial photo and video manipulation, you can trust nothing you see on any screen or print to be true.
"...incedentally Super Dave has been outfitted with a special transistorized microphone so we can be in full contact with him at all times."
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posted: Mar 22, 2008
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r2d2
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 I, one R2D2 esquire, do hereby revolt against the unfair censorship of my free speech. I refuse to kowtow to the dictatorial, uncivilized editorial board here at techRivet.com and bring to you one of the most extraordinary ballet performances you will ever see.
If I could cry I would. I guess I will let out a few plaintive Beep-beeps followed by a mournful woooop.
The Great Chinese State Circus Performs Swan Lake.
It gets frankly astonishing at about the 4:30 mark. And even before then it is unbelievable.
Jose over at ThinkJose.com talks of a story of a friend of his, Louis. Louis happens to be deaf. Well Louis has found a grand use for online video as a communication tool for the deaf. Go check out the videos over at ThinkJose.com. Why video is changing the world
The envelope was seriously pushed in Pirates of the Caribbean 3. That scene was probably the biggest cinematic event that's happened to date. Up until about 20 years ago there was only one side, and that was us, and now there's two sides. and uh it's made movies better. John Frazier - Effects Specialist, of the physical/mechanical variety. Wired Article: How Physics and Computers bring an Ocean to Life for the Movies
Remarkable suit that is reminiscent of the forklift suit from "Aliens". 
Only smaller and quicker and cooler.
I was able to find the video of this awesome footage on YouTube today. The rising image Wide Shot taken from near the North Pole, and the Arabian Peninsula and Indian Ocean can be observed on the Earth.
The setting image Tele Shot taken from near the South Pole, and we can see the Australian Continent (center left) and the Asian Continent (lower right) on the Earth. Scooter GadgetGrid.com
Guinness World Records organization is calling this the world's largest artificial tornado. Not sure what the applications are, but "kewl" to look at none the less... Scooter GadgetGrid.com
Some people really need to get a life. So there are a tonne of Rube Goldberg machine videos out on the web, some quite good some mediocre. The most famous one is the Honda commercial where every part of the car becomes part of the contraption. This one is exemplary. It may not be the best...but it is dang close.
Holy crap! I tried not to post this...I really did...but I just had to. This is interesting in retrospect as a lesson for the coming future in which everything that everyone does will be recorded (or virtually everything). This of course means that all the boring stuff will be forgotten but every little (or in this case big) stupid thing you ever do will be available for someone else (in this case a lot of someone elses) to view and therefore make fun of (or in this case skillfully ridicule within the video). Note to self, don't do stupid things in public.
Flash tried for a long time to become the next paradigm in web User Interface design. Over the years there has been loud supporters of Flash technologies in support of this effort. But there has been a larger resistance. It has failed up to now largely because Flash adds only marginal benefit over HTML and it brakes standard navigation from within a browser. For any added snazziness that Flash provided you got little else along with it. The net was negative. It has always had a place as a online game platform or as an online rich "creative" [read advertisement] platform. But not as a replacement UI. But it did accomplish something. It got a high penetration rate: 97% plus. This has been a crucial factor in its adoption as the now defacto web-video standard. None of the other players whether they be quicktime or windows media player have that adoption rate. Flash allows near ubiquity in one format. This presents the only way currently for unifying a customer experience when viewing a video. The other benefit that I believe has not been written about as of yet is that with Flash you can design your own player. This is great for any site concerned about their brand, especially for video sharing sites like Revver and of course YouTube. For if someone puts a video from your site on their blog, you can deliver that video from within a branded Flash player. Even to the point of providing some unique navigation elements. Your brand is proliferated beyond the domain of your site...virally. Questions pop into my brain at this point. Will this be the flash legacy? Will we look back on Flash in 5 years and perceive it primarily as a video delivery technology and not as a game/creative/vector-graphic engine? I say yes. The benefits it provides to the online delivery of videos cannot be matched by any of the other technologies currently available.It provides ubiquity, customization, easy maintenance, easy share-ability...check, check, check, check. It is not the first mover in this space, in fact it is quite late to the party, but it has the above stated benefits that provide differentiation that are, in my humble opinion, not beatable by the current set of substitute products. Will it be able to leverage this capability into a broader control of the web UI space? Ahh, now this is an interesting question. Flash is in an interesting place. It is almost like it stumbled into this position. It is on the verge of LOCKING up this channel of content delivery. What happens then? Once people are comfortable with pasting an <embed> or an <object> tag on their page, what can flash leverage beyond that...? Maybe they'll achieve their goal of becoming the Web UI via this route instead of head on. We shall have to wait and see.
Advertising as content. Brilliant ad. It's entertaining. It stays on the companies message... Funny. Cute. Has a baby...check, check, check. And they did it all in cgi. This was obviously a requirement due to the baby being a ninja master. But it works. It has a certain Shrek-ness about it that imbues even a bit more humor into it. A+ effort. Update: Wilkinson has a website devoted to the campaign - www.ffk-wilkinsong.com. The trailer is there, it talks about the characters, goodies, and a game. A 96 megabyte downloadable game. So this is not an inexpensive proposition to create. It is merely exploiting a non-traditional channel. This falls into the subject my friend Todd Sawicki wrote about here: http://www.techrivet.com/2007/03/28/whyViralIsntFree.aspx. Although I could argue that the viral campaign has other goals in mind besides bottom line sales. Increasing awareness in the consumer to your brand is also a valid goal, just one much harder to measure. Update 2: The game is pretty lame...not worth the download time. Picture a slower, less fun, stupider, mortal combat. Anyways, here's a screenshot. 
What if Harry Potter had elements of "300", X-Men, the Matrix all stired up into a stew of lightning bolt badness.
"THIS IS...HOGWARTS!"
 This is great. The creativity involved with this is impressive. I especially like the bit at the end that displays this. Not that I fixated on the beer part expecially, but it just seemed to round out the video appropriately.
Hat Tip: tech herding
Iceland Lake Race between a suped up 4X4 and a snowmobile. These guys are crazy!
Umm...actually I don't know exactly what they're doing. But it looks like something at the far ends of the normal distribution of intelligent occupations. It is either a punishment or a fantasy.
Money quote:
There's only three I've ever been afraid of
- Electricity
- Heights
- and women
...and I'm married too.
Update: This is so interesting that I couldn't just leave it as a video only. I did a bit of searching and here are some links that I came up with.
Danger! High voltage!: Here's a good article fromthe Reader Wayne Fort that talks about it.
The arc is the burst of light created by the transfer of electricity. Electricity streaking between the wand and the wire is incredible. Viewed from the ground the arc appears to shoot from the lineman’s hand like lightning from an electrified comic book hero. For an Agrotors Powerline crew that’s just part of bonding on so they can get to work.
Up in the air with the blades whirling overhead, getting to work is a delicate aerial dance between the pilot and the wires. If he doesn’t get close enough the lineman can’t bond on but getting too close to the wrong wire can cause a flash-over in which electrical clearance is violated.
Whew! crazy!
And here's a company that does the work: [linky]
The benefits of Aerial live work
- Production up to ten times faster than conventional techniques, depending on applications.
- All work is carried out under “live” conditions, therefore no need for the customer to switch out lines.
- Exponential improvement of network quality of supply due to economies of scale.
- Smaller work force required carrying out pro-active preventative line maintenance.
- Only the safest world-best practices are employed ensuring the customer’s power line integrity is not compromised in any way.
- Access to areas previously regarded as inaccessible.
- Rapid reactive response to repair line faults during outages.
 To get a Joost invite please leave a comment that answers these five quick (and I hope fun) questions:
1. Without looking it up anywhere, describe Joost's business model to me.
2. What is your favorite blog?
3. What technology do you think is going to impact our lives the most
a. In the next 5 years?
b. In the next 10 years?
c. In the next 25 years?
4. If you can choose only one, which of the following would you like to have.
a. Time Travel
b. Space Travel - FTL (screw Einstein)
ok...why?
5. What's cooler?
a. Millenium Falcon
b. Bird of Prey
If you didn't answer Millenium Falcon then can you please explain to me your pathetic reasoning?
For those of you that answer my questions five, I'll send you a joost invite. (unless I start getting too many then I will arbitrarily stop doing it...just sayin, get your answers in soon.)
If I get some good responses I'll compile them.
cheers - g Update: I need the name you want to use for the Joost account. So if you want to be called Ed Edinator, like one of the previous commentors then just leave it up to me. If on the other hand you would prefer a first name and last name of your choosing then leave a first name and last name in the comments. Thanks - g
As the launch of the iPhone approaches, I've been thinking a lot about the strategy behind the pricing and realizing how absolutely brilliant it is. The vast majority of people believe the device is over-priced at $499 and $599 for 4GB and 8GB models. I think they've hit the real sweet spot.
We live in a new world.
 Careers that existed for 2000 years are largely gone. For instance: blacksmith. Who needs their plow worked on? Um...mine's fine thanks. This is a completely antiquated job that is now the domain of the tourist trap or niche artist.
Other historical jobs that are gone:
- Lighthouse keeper
- Cooper
- Carraige Wheel maker
- Longshoreman (as break bulk freight handler)
There are jobs that are at risk of obsolescence right now.
 Car salesman and the Auto dealership model itself. Toyota is leading the charge with made-to-order cars shipped to the dealership for you. They have the best production methods so they can attempt this method of manufacturing process, but if they are able to pull it off, the other manufacturers will need to do it as well.
Grocery Store Checker: Wal*Mart is in the early phases of rolling out RFID in ALL of its product. (in the future all the way down to the unit level)...this means you could conceivably fill your cart, push it through a kiosk (while not pulling a single item out of the cart), swipe your card and walk out the door. And where Wal*Mart leads, all follow. Bye bye checker.
Other current jobs at risk of obsolescence.
- Journalist (paid by a coporation)
- Television repairman
New jobs
Now we can speak of the obvious new careers available to people: Web developer, Systems engineer, Ad-Banner sales, Flash developer, Ajax zen master, Enterprise Open Source Adoption Tech Evangelist. But what I want to talk about is jobs and careers that have come about BECAUSE of the technology deployed. Ones that but for the layers and layers of technology and the network effect of adoption of these technologies would not exist.
Professional Scotch drinker video blogger: Ze Frank has been able to parlay 5 minute entertaining thoughts on his world into a sponsorship by Dewars Scotch! Woah nelly, talk about my hero! So here we have a guy, who makes little videos, puts them online, people watch them, and he gets sponsored. Granted he is talented and entertaining, but this model of getting noticed and making money is remarkable and historically unprecidented.
ANYONE that has talent has the ability to get noticed. You put a video or two up on Youtube (or wherever) and, if it is entertaining, you could get noticed. Get enough interest and get yourself some ad-dollars. Sweet! Virtually NO middleman.
Professional dancer: Where in the Hell is Matt?. Not like any professional dancer that you've heard about. Matt makes his money by traveling around the globe and doing a goofy little dance...ummm...what?
 How does one get this gig? Well you can go here and read about it. But essentially (much like Ze Frank), because Matt has talent (albiet a goofy dance type of talent) and he was able to put his talent up on the web for all to see, Stride gum found him and decided on their own to sponsor him.
Again, never woulda happened before about 2 or 3 years ago...
Professional blogger: problogger.net. Darren Rowse has an interesting gig. He is somewhat of a hero/mentor out on the web. He makes a nice salary by just blogging, but he has taken it to a meta level. He now has a job where he essentially gets paid to blog about making money blogging. That's a bit recursive. I wonder if I could make money about making money about how to make money blogging. The mind spins with the possibilities.
These are only a few cursory examples. I know of someone at my work who is supplementing his income to the tune of $2000/month, so it not only applies to Full time work but also part time. I plan on throwing my hat in the ring and seeing how much additional income I can make off of you poor saps from advertising on this site.
This is a change in the way our economy is structured. It will have long term effects and there is no going back.
Do you have an example?
Do you make your money in a new way?
Interesting reading:
Jeff Han blew people's minds last year at the TED conference with this presentation on multi-touch computing. He showed us what could be accomplished when interfaces just get out of the way and we get to manipulate our data with our own hands, rather than through crufty intermediary devices.
So, while the Han video is insanely cool, I was trying to come up with an idea of how this technology could help me in my day to day work environment. I don't use maps. I don't need an interactive lava lamp or to manage mountains of photos all day. I sit in a cubicle in front of three separate computer monitors (2 for my laptop - the onboard and a separate one, and one for my desktop development box). My work revolves greatly around email, Microsoft office products (blech), and some organizational webapps that I use to remember and manage what's important. In general, I think I have pretty good systems for what goes where, especially on my computer and network drives.
As I looked at the mess that was my desk, however, an idea finally began to emerge. I could use the new interface to completely replace my entire desk! Now that a sizeable screen has the ability to access any amount of virtual space and I have the ability to navigate that space with simple gestures there is no need to keep mountains of paper (half of them with huge "confidential" reminders printed all over them) stacked out in plain view or in little file folders.
It also opens up the possibility that I can use smaller interfaces to access my virtual workspace remotely. As long as an input device is large enough to gesture and the scaling technologies allow us to navigate at any scale, there's no reason I can't use an iPhone or an ereader during a meeting to access files on the network, distribute them to others in the room, and generally replace all the paper cruft which would normally be going on. No more printing PowerPoint decks, OK?
What I'm really talking about is the merging of multi-touch computing with something like the 3D BumpTop Desktop below:
Maybe the combinations of these new interfaces spell the death of my messy real-world desktop and the birth of my messy virtual desktop? Dare to dream.
The future of advertising is uncertain, you must connect with your consumers. But how do you do this?
Example #1: SneauxShoes.com - Human Skateboard - It's brilliant and works on so many levels.
First of all it's just dang entertaining. The whole concept is original. The craftmanship is just right.
But after getting over the entertainment value you have to admire the targeting here. This is an advertisment for shoes. For slacker shoes, (i.e. skateborder). Let's take a look at this in a check list format.
- Entertaining - check.
- leverages viral network (youtube) - check
- Let's consumers have an impact on the brand - check
- You get what they are trying to sell - and it ain't just the shoes ( it's also the image) - check
...and on top of that it is very cheap, and probably reaches its demographic better than a traditional media ad would be able to do. Anectdotally, just me showing it to a couple of friends here...they all sent it off to there friends, whom I would assume would send it off to theirs and so on and so on...
Lesson. You can save money AND have a more targetted reach by leveraging the "free" viral network available to you in Youtube and like minded video sharing sites. A pre-requisite is an ENTERTAINING piece of content. The value of the entertainment must be high to be viral
Example #2: Smirnoff's Tea Partay! - Keeping it Real in Cape Cod y'all!
Beautiful. This video actually contains commentary on two separate cultures within the U.S. There is a fairly deep thesis buried inside this comedic advertisment video. Concerning who has the power, who has cool, who REALLY has cool, and who REEALY REEAAAALLY has cool. I'll leave it for you to figure it out because this post is about how the ad-as-content works not about any societal commentary.
But back to the check list
- Entertaining - check.
- leverages viral network (youtube) - you bet
- Let's consumers have an impact on the brand - check
- You get what they are trying to sell - all the image - it is just a mid range vodka after all. - check
After looking at the Tea Partay website I would actually argue that Smirnoff devoted too much effort into the site. The value of viral advertising is the ability for people to take your video (or other piece of entertaining ad content) and send it around the net. Email it, put it on their myspace page, put it in their blog, send their friends to it, etc. Having a webpage where people can go is not the priority.
I believe that Smirnoff's money would have been better spent by making a $50k (me guessing) brochure type website instead of the $250k+ (me guessing again) pretty flash based website and invest the difference into a sequel video.
It isn't about the home base anymore. It's about the distributed ad. The distributed piece of content.
Reebok needs to bring back Terry Tate: sniff, sniff, I miss him
Hat tip: www.jaffejuice.com
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